The Racism of the West. Options

[alienshards]

The Racism of the West is quite blatant. I do not refer to racial slurs or lynchings. I do not speak of discrimination. These things do matter, but not quite as much as what I am refering to.

Genocide. It has happened, and it happens all the time. It happens to both blacks and whites.

With the genocide in Kosovo, 45 deaths were proven and a NATO intervention took place, with Albanians able to immigrate to the United States as refugees. I myself knew one such immigant, who was in my class at school.

However, with genocides in Africa, such as Rwanda, there is general apathy? For instance, the Darfur conflict was rarely covered on news.

Genecides outside of Europe are generally ignored. This is blatant racism that all of the west partakes in. This is the true racism of the world we should be worried about.

Do you know of any genocides that did not take place in Europe? Do you care?

[*mipadi*]

I don't think the lack of a response can entirely be chalked up to racism; rather, I think the reason can be found in political interests. Governments rarely do things altruistically; rather, they get involved in world affairs in order to protect their own interests.

The United States doesn't have much of a political interest in most parts of the African region, but they do have a strong interest in western Europe, the Middle East, China, et al. I think it's politics, not racism, that caused intervention in Kosovo.

Iraq is another good example. The President can talk all he wants about "spreading freedom"; the reason we went into Iraq was for political and economic gain, or at least stability.

It could also be a fear of history. Recall that we did have troops in Somalia in the early 1990s. That intervention resulted in the deaths of 19 American special forces operatives. News media outlets certainly covered the Somalian militants when they dragged the bodies of US servicemen through the streets of Mogadishu, and President Clinton took a beating for that incident by Republican politicians.

I don't think racism is as much an issue as "politics as usual".